Well, there ya have it - short and sweet. STEP THREE: My fix for the midtones looking darker is to (wait for it…wait for it…) brighten the midtones dragging the Exposure slider to the right a bit, usually between +20 (as I did here) to +30, but of course, as always (say it with me now), “It just depends on the image.” You may be totally cool with that, and depending on the image, I often like how those darker midtones look after applying a bunch of Clarity, but if you don’t like how it looks, then go on the next step. The original is on the left, and the version with added Clarity is on the right. One side-effect of applying Clarity is that it tends to make your midtones darker (after all, what clarity does is add Midtone Contrast).
#LIGHTROOM TOPAZ CLARITY MAC#
STEP TWO: Let’s zoom in (Press Command-+ on Mac or Ctrl-+ on Windows) and then look at a before and after view (press the letter “y” on your keyboard to get to this side-by-side view). Here I was able to crank it up big time, because of the nature of the image. You’ll know if you’ve got too far is you start to see dark halos appear around the edges of things in your image. You couldn’t get away using this much on images that have people in them - it makes them look kinda bruised and dirty. I cranked it up a lot here (I dragged it over to +74), which works for images that have a lot of hard edges like this. STEP ONE: If I see an image like this which has a lot of texture (the street, the sidewalks, the bricks on the buildings, the metal railings, etc.) I reach for the Clarity Slider to enhance the detail and texture. Here’s our original image (it’s a stock photo from Adobe Stock). Here’s a bit more in-depth on it, including a tweak I do to get better results: I think of it’s as the “detail enhancer.” If I want to bring out texture our detail, I know it’s the slider to reach for. It’s a new year - lots of new Lightroom users coming on board these days, and so I thought I’d kick this week off with how I think about “Clarity” (more precisely, the Clarity slider in Lightroom Classic or CC). All opinions are my own.Howdy, everybody. I only share products that I believe will be valuable to my readers (most of which I personally use and love).
#LIGHTROOM TOPAZ CLARITY CODE#
It will retail for $49.99 but will be available at a special reduced price of $29.99 through with the promo code “claritynew”.ĭisclosure: This post contains affiliate links which means that I may receive a commission if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase. If you’d like to add Topaz Clarity to your toolbox it will be released May 22, 2013. So, what do you think? Do you have a preference between the two images? I definitely like what Topaz Clarity can do and am looking forward to its official release tomorrow! For most images a preset is a starting good point, but I liked what it did to this image and ran with it.
#LIGHTROOM TOPAZ CLARITY SOFTWARE#
This software has several controls that you can use to increase or decrease the effect of the preset (or create your own preset). I didn’t do anything crazy with Topaz Detail, I simply applied the Landscape preset “Color & Contrast Boost II.” The bottom image was processed with today’s technology – Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 and Topaz Clarity Right away I notice a few differences – the colors pop a bit more, and, thanks to Topaz Clarity there is more detail in the clouds, water, and the reflections in the bottoms of the gondolas. I processed it in Lightroom, whatever the current version was at the time. The top image is the one that has been in my portfolio since 2009. Now that you know a bit about this photo and why I love it, lets consider the processing. I LOVE the angle I captured – its unlike any other Venice photo I’ve seen (which is no small feat considering how many people photograph Venice each and every day)! I captured this image sitting in a butterfly position on the edge of the Grand Canal, near Piazza San Marco (St. The image above is one of my all-time favorites from Venezia (Venice).
Its amazing how far technology has come in the last 3-4 years!
Its always great fun for a photo geek like me to reprocess old images. To test it out I pulled out some photos from a trip I took to Venice in 2009. As its name suggests, it boosts image clarity and brings out details that you may have not otherwise noticed. Last week I got my hands on a pre-release version of the new Topaz Clarity I’ve been having a lot of fun playing with this new software (a plug-in for Lightroom & Photoshop ).